Sermon Tone Analysis

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Knowing God
“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
I. the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; (v18)
A. Philo expresses it:
1.
What the eye is to the body, the understanding is to the soul; and that as the eye is not light in itself, and can discern nothing but by the means of light shining, not only on the objects to be viewed, but into the eye itself; so
2. the understanding of man can discern no sacred thing of or by itself, but sees by the influence of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation; for without the influence of God's Holy Spirit no man ever became wise unto salvation, no more than a man ever discerned an object, (no matter how perfect soever his eye might have been), without the instrumentality of light.
- Adam Clarke's Commentary.
II. that you may know what is the hope of His calling, (18)
A. The hope of his calling—That you may clearly discern the magnificent and important objects of your hope, to the enjoyment of which God has called or invited you.
- Adam Clarke's Commentary.
B. That you may clearly discern the glorious and important objects of your hope, to the enjoyment of which God has called or invited you.
III.
what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and
A. That you may understand what is the glorious abundance of the spiritual things to which you are entitled, in consequence of being made children of God - Adam Clarke's Commentary.
1.
The Spirit of adoption—Adoption was an act frequent among the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans; by which
a) a person was taken out of one family and incorporated with another.
Persons of property, who had no children of their own, adopted those of another family.
The child thus adopted ceased to belong to his own family, and was in every respect
b) bound to the person who had adopted him, as if he were his own child; and in consequence of the death of his adopting father he possessed his estates.
If a person after he had adopted a child happened to have children of his own, then the estate was equally divided between the adopted and real children.
- Adam Clarke's Commentary
IV. what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe,
A. according to the working of His mighty power (passive power is widely different from power in action; and power in action will be in its results according to the energy or momentum with which it is applied.
Adam Clarke's Commentary.) which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
B. far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and
C. every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
D. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
In life, and especially in our relationships, it’s important that we understand some fundamental principles; it’s important that we grasp some foundational truths that will help us know God.
In fact, if these principles become a part of our everyday experience, then we could find ourselves developing the kind of relationships that would help us storm the gates of hell and establish God’s church in enemy territory.
That’s really why the book of Ephesians was written.
God wants His church to “build itself up in love” (4:16), so it can “stand against the devil’s schemes” (6:11), as it fearlessly proclaims “the mystery of the gospel” (6:19).
But in order for that to happen, we must understand some foundational, spiritual realities.
Here, the great Apostle Paul is praying for the church, asking God that we might “know” some things.
If we want to build strong relationships for a strong church with a strong ministry, then first of all, we must…
KNOW GOD.
Not just know about God, but know God fully & personally.
We must be intimately acquainted with him.
Everything starts with a growing knowledge of God Himself.
Tim Keller talks about his brother-in-law who would never wear a seat belt in the car.
Tim always scolded him for it, but one time, Tim’s brother-in-law came to pick him up at the airport, and he was all buckled up! Tim asked him, “What happened?
What changed you?”
His brother-in-law said, “I went to visit a friend of mine in the hospital who was in a car accident and went through the windshield.
He had two or three hundred stitches in his face.
I said to myself, I better wear my seat belt.”
They talked about that a little bit, and Tim asked, “Did you NOT know that if you don't wear your seat belt you go through the windshield if you have an accident?”
His brother-in-law replied, “Of course I knew it.
When I went to the hospital to see my friend, I got no new information, but the information I had became new.
The information got real to my heart and finally sank down and affected the way I live.”
(Tim Keller, “Unintentional Preaching Models,” Preaching to the Heart, CD 3; Ockenga Institute of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary)
That’s the kind of knowledge we need.
We don’t need new information.
Rather, we need information that becomes new.
We need information that gets real to our hearts and affects the way we live.
That’s how we need to know God.
We don’t need more information about God.
We just need for God Himself to get real to our hearts and affect the way we live.
Oh, that God would reveal Himself to us like that during our worship services.
We don’t need more information about Him; we just need Him!
How is it going to happen?
Simple.
God will reveal Himself to us as we spend time with Him.
We get to know God like we get to know any person.
We get to know God by being together with Him over time.
Spend TIME in the Word, listening to God.
Then spend TIME in prayer, talking to God about the things He says to you in His Word.
Spending time with the Lord is important, because if we want to build strong relationships for a strong church with a strong ministry, then we must, 1st and foremost, get to know God better.
It’s key.
Without it, nothing else happens.
We must know God.
Then we can…
KNOW GOD’S HOPE.
We can experience the assurance of His calling.
We can live in the confidence that comes when we know that God has personally invited us to be in close relationship with himself.
Paul says, “[I am praying] that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you.” (ESV)
God’s calling gives us great hope.
It gives us great confidence.
It gives us great assurance.
Hope in the Bible is not an unsure, “hope so” kind of outlook.
It’s a confident assurance in the future, because God’s promises never fail.
We believe in Jesus Christ.
We have been called.
We have a personal invitation from the Lord of the Universe Himself to come and go into his presence, and that gives us great confidence to go and do what others dare not even try.
We can come boldly to the throne of grace in prayer.
We can go boldly to a world in desperate need of a Savior.
We can serve our Lord boldly wherever it is He calls us to serve.
My friends, if we want to build strong relationships for a strong church with a strong ministry, then 1st, we must know God.
2nd, we must know God’s hope – the assurance of His calling.
And 3rd, we must…
KNOW GOD’S WEALTH.
We must understand how rich God really is.
The psalms say, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”
Revelation says He has streets of gold in heaven.
The song says, “He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth in every mine.
He owns the rivers and the rocks and rills, the sun and stars that shine.”
God is very wealthy, but does His true wealth lie in these things?
That’s not what God thinks.
Look at verse 18 again.
Paul is praying that you might not only know what is the hope to which he has called you, but also…
“what are the riches of HIS glorious inheritance in the saints.”
(ESV)
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